A Handbook of the Boer War eBook

A large number of burghers, however, as soon as they
heard that Prinsloo had agreed to surrender, hurried
away under Haasbroek, and scraped through the Golden
Gate and joined Olivier and Hattingh outside the Basin.
They were successful in evading the capitulation, for
Olivier, when informed of it officially under a flag
of truce, also declined to be bound by Prinsloo’s
act, and Hunter was unable to insist upon it.
He trekked away towards Harrismith unmolested by the
troops watching the Golden Gate, and he baffled for
four weeks the columns sent in pursuit by Hunter,
who, however, prevented him joining De Wet. He
was taken prisoner near Winburg on August 27.

The tangible result of the Brandwater Basin operations
was the capture of more than 4,000 Boers and of three
guns, two of which had been lost at Sannah’s
Post. The mountains in which the burghers had
taken refuge became a prison, from which they were
taken when Hunter came on circuit for the gaol delivery,
and on conviction they were sent beyond the seas.

Yet subsequent events showed that Lord Roberts would
have made a good bargain if he could have exchanged
all the burghers and the guns, and all the loot of
horses, cattle, and sheep, for one man who had slipped
through Slabbert’s Nek on July 15, 1900.

Notes:

[Footnote 44: Napoleon said that “a military
order must not be passively obeyed except when it
is given by a superior who is on the spot at the moment
the order is given, knows the state of things, and
can hear objections and give full explanations to
the officer charged with executing the order.”]

[Footnote 45: Also called Vredefort Road Station.]

[Footnote 46: 660,000 rounds of Lee-Metford ammunition
were buried by him for future use.]

[Footnote 47: In the Russian War the Japanese
gave orders that a Russian admiral, who was a wounded
prisoner of war on board a Japanese torpedo boat,
was to be shot if any attempt was made by the Russians
to capture it.]

CHAPTER XIII

Nec Celer nec Audax

[Sidenote: Map, p. 50.]

Lord Roberts had almost as much difficulty in bringing
Buller out of Ladysmith as he had had in putting him
into it. The relieved garrison, wasted and enfeebled
by the rigours of the siege, was unfit to take the
field, but there does not seem to have been any good
reason why the relieving force, or at least a portion
of it, should not have been pushed forward boldly
without delay. The inaction invited the retreating
enemy to halt and occupy the Biggarsberg Range; only
a few days after Buller had informed Lord Roberts
that he did not expect that any stand would be made
south of Laing’s Nek. Buller did indeed
propose on March 3 to advance on Northern Natal, as
well as to attack the Drakensberg passes leading into
the Free State; but Lord Roberts thought the scheme
premature and ordered him to remain on the defensive,